Severe Weather Warnings: impact of an event vs. impact of a warning.

<p>The most important question a national weather service should ask itself in connection with its warning task is: "Do our warnings contribute to reducing the impact of extreme weather events?". A perfect impact forecast of an extreme weather event does not necessarily contribute to reduce the impact of the event. Even the most perfect warning, whether based on physical thresholds or on potential impact, is not a guarantee for a reduction of the impact of the warned extreme event. Only If the warning reaches the recipient in time, is understood and action is taken, is there a chance that the impact can be reduced, which means that the warning unfolds an impact. Therefore, if we want the recipient to understand the warnings and to know what action to take, we have to know what his needs are.</p><p>In this contribution we describe a method (“Jobs to be done”) with which we investigated the needs of the authorities in terms of severe weather warnings in Switzerland and we will present the results of this investigation. This method focuses our attention on those processes that are important to the authorities but unsatisfactorily fulfilled. Once isolated, we engage our experts in cooperation with the authorities to find optimal and innovative solutions through design thinking workshops. In the Swiss federal structure, the warning chain extends over all levels of the governance structure: the severe weather warnings are issued at federal level and transmitted to the Cantons, these can decide to add local information, particularly concerning impact, and transmit them to the communities and the population. In our investigation, we concentrated on the administrative authorities and on the cantonal coordination bodies of the fire brigades. The aim of this study is to find indications for optimising the warnings, in terms of content, representation and also distribution.</p><p>The investigation started in January 2021 with a series of interviews with seven natural hazard experts and six fire inspectors of different Cantons. Currently (April 2021) we are running two surveys in all Cantons and in June we plan two workshops with representatives of the Cantons and of the fire brigades together with collaborators of the National Weather Service MeteoSwiss (forecasters, developers and key accounts). </p>

Relational key account management: insights from the Middle Eastern context

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore relational aspects of key account management (KAM) in terms of social capital and relationship quality. The second objective was to identify the main dimensions that shape social capital and relationship quality within the KAM context. Finally, the third objective was to explore how relational KAM is practiced in the Middle Eastern context. Design/methodology/approach This study used a qualitative methodology and a multiple case design. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a sample of senior executives from large Saudi firms. Findings The results highlight the importance of relationship quality and social capital to KAM implementation. A multiple case study was used to build a relational framework for KAM in the Middle Eastern context. Practical implications Three strategies were identified for use within the context of KAM in the Saudi market. The first strategy consisted of a means of attracting potential customers. The second strategy involved communication, aimed at maintaining frequent contact with key accounts. Finally, the third strategy was concentrated in maintenance to help sustain the relationship with key accounts. Originality/value This study extends understanding and the application of KAM to the Middle Eastern context, contributing to social capital, relationship quality and the KAM literature.

Key Account Management: Decisions Sciences in Practice

Key Account Management (KAM) has been vastly misunderstood, in not just in Indian companies but in many western companies too. India has a slew of multinationals, but they have also fallen into the trap of classifying key accounts by just sorting their accounts in a descending order and drawing a line based just on the contribution of the account to the top line. This paper will examine an alternate method of identifying and categorizing accounts and not just in the form of labels like A, B, C or platinum, gold, silver etc. Procedure: It will be our effort to examine various factors that, in addition to the value contribution to the supplier, that can be consolidated under two main criteria viz: 1) Attractiveness of the account to the supplier and 2) how attractive is the supplier to the buyer(account) under consideration. For this, we will be using a ‘modified’ GE/Shell matrix. An area, which will discuss en passant, is how do we evaluate the key accounts based on the above matrix and the way resources should be allocated for each category as a whole, and subsequently drill down to individual accounts. Implication: This paper should provide an insight to the students of management to understand an alternate way to classify their key accounts and also to the practitioners in industry to have a new look at how key accounts can be redefined.

The role of customer orientation in key account managers’ performance: a client network perspective

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how does key accounts managers’ (KAMs’) customer orientation affect customers’ repurchase intention and how do tie strength and structural holes in KAMs’ client networks moderate these linkages. Design/methodology/approach Paired data of 208 dyadic relationships between KAMs and customers in several Chinese industries are subjected to multiple linear regression analyses. Findings KAMs’ functional customer orientation can directly increase customers’ repurchase intention, whereas relational customer orientation cannot do that. With strong ties in client networks, KAMs’ relational customer orientation could promote customers’ repurchase intention, whereas when there are many structural holes in a client network, relational customer orientation would constrain customers’ repurchase intention. In addition, structural holes can enhance the effectiveness of functional customer orientation in facilitating customers’ repurchase intention, but tie strength has no impact on this. Originality/value This study pays attention to the emerging topic of KAMs’ customer orientation and introduces KAMs’ client networks as a new contextual factor. The findings not only address the outcomes of KAM’s customer orientation but also indicate the vital role client networks play in determining the effectiveness of KAMs’ customer orientation.

The Need for a New Account of the Evolution of Representational Decision Making

This chapter discusses in some detail three of the key accounts of the evolution of representational decision making in the literature: (a) Ruth Millikan’s specialization-based account, (b) causality-based accounts, and (c) Kim Sterelny’s flexibility-based account. It shows that while this work makes some very important suggestions that should not be overlooked, by itself, it fails to provide a detailed and well-grounded account of the evolution of representational decision making.

Morphological variability in L2 Italian

Key accounts of morphological variability in L2 acquisition posit either deficits in the representation of abstract morphosyntactic features or the mapping between morpho-phonological forms and syntactic features due to computational limitations. This study extends previous research to L2 Italian, a richly inflected language. The production and grammatical intuitions of suppletive and affixal verb inflection were elicited from a cross-section of instructed adult L2 learners with L1 Spanish and L1 English. Although a clear production-intuition gap was found, supporting computational views, a strong regularity in the degree of variability across test conditions, L1s, and proficiency levels was also attested, supporting representational accounts. The findings suggest morphological development in L2 Italian is consistent with structure-building models that assume no L1 transfer of functional features. Imperative verb forms in L2 Italian are proposed as defaults equivalent to the bare verb forms of L2 English and non-finite defaults of L2 French and German.

The role of senior executives in managing key customers in Arab context

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of senior managers in managing intra-and inter-organizational relationships with key customers and the factors that influence such involvement in a novel context in the Arab Middle East region. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory qualitative research design was used in which 68 face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted in Jordan with endogenous and Western firms. Findings Top/senior managers play a significant role in Arab business relationships and in creating value for the firms. Their involvement in key accounts is imperative at all levels – strategic, operational, and relational – mainly due to cultural and institutional factors that are unique to the Arab context. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to operations in one emerging country situated in a novel setting in one particular region of the world, which is the Middle East. Practical implications Arab senior managers’ participation is imperative and should continue with their relatively intense involvement with key accounts. For foreign investors operating in that part of the world, it is highly recommended that senior management have a more a hands-on approach when dealing with the Arab key customer and to focus more on the relational aspect of key account management than on the organizational aspect. Originality/value This paper adds to the very limited number of studies on senior management involvement in key account management, making a theoretical and practical contribution and adding insight on how to manage the relationship with the Arab key customer.